Israel Is Becoming a FoodTech Superpower

“With a population of just 9.5 million, Israel punches far above its weight when it comes to food technology,” says Zachi Schnarch, deputy director and CTO of the Israel Innovation Authority. “We’re considered a global leader in this snowballing industry, with one of the world’s highest rates of innovation and attracting 12% of all global FoodTech investment. Last year, over 250 Israeli FoodTech start-ups raised $900 million between them, three times more than the year before – making Israel second only to the US in the amount of capital raised by active FoodTech companies.”

Israel’s own outlay has been significant. More than NIS 200 million has been invested in the FoodTech sector during the past decade by the Israel Innovation Authority alone, 80% of it in the past couple of years. As an independent, publicly funded government entity, the Authority serves as a catalyst for innovation, especially where risk is high and the innovation groundbreaking.

“Israel’s high-tech ecosystem as a whole is flourishing, with over 70 unicorns founded here,” says Schnarch. “Most, however, are in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Cyber and FinTech. To ensure continuing prosperity, our high-tech ecosystem must diversify, and part of the Authority’s remit is to develop new ecosystems. FoodTech, which interfaces food and technology, embraces areas of Israeli expertise – agro-technology, biology, software engineering, entrepreneurship and start-up management – making it an obvious arena for us.”

Feeding the world sustainably

Until three or four years ago, few people had heard of FoodTech and few researchers applied their skills and knowledge to food. But with world hunger, the global climate crisis and our growing carbon footprint, the new technology has become critical in feeding the world efficiently, sustainably and securely. Standard farming cannot produce enough food for the planet’s nine billion mouths without depleting natural resources and severely damaging the environment. Livestock, whose farming is increasingly recognized as controversial, consume more water than humans do and create some 18% of greenhouse gas emissions.

And yet… “FoodTech faces a unique challenge because of the availability of currently accessible low-cost food,” says Schnarch. With beef, poultry, milk and butter filling supermarket shelves, how many shoppers think about the ozone layer? The culture is, however, changing. Environmental awareness is on the rise, and people are increasingly seeking healthier food with less sugar, less salt, more vitamins and no preservatives, stabilizers, oxidizers or emulsifiers.

The growing popularity of fresh, healthy food is the main engine for Israel’s burgeoning alternative protein market, which leapt 450% between 2020 and 2021. “Israel is among the global leaders in research, innovation and public investment into alternative proteins,” says Dr. Yair Bezman, Food Technologist and Israel Innovation Authority's food technology evaluator. “Last year, the Authority invested NIS 40.5 million in alternative protein technologies, used to lay foundations for new products, spur interaction between start-ups and the food industry, and launch new products into the marketplace – making new foods easier to digest in every way!”

Meatless meat and animal-free dairy

The Innovation Authority has provided grants to 47 of Israel’s hundred-plus alternative protein companies, 19 of them this year. Among them are five of the world’s most advanced slaughter-free, cultured meatless-meat start-ups, a global industry that could be worth $25 billion by 2030. Some of these companies use tissue culture technology, growing animal cells into cuts of meat in the laboratory.

The Aleph Farms start-up (whose investors include not only the Authority but also actor Leonardo DiCaprio) has cultivated a thick and juicy ribeye steak. Ashton Kutcher is another Hollywood personality who is invested in Israel’s alternative proteins. His money is in MeaTech, whose meat products are 3D printed. Future Meat, which creates chicken, lamb and beef from animal cells, opened the world’s first industrial cultured meat production facility last year in Rehovot.

Redefine Meat’s technology is on a different track: its 3D-printed whole cuts, burgers, sausages, lamb kebabs and ground beef come not from animal cells but from plants. The Authority helped the company build a facility whose products are already sold in some 200 restaurants countrywide. InnovoPro, too, uses plant-based technology. It transforms the humble chickpea of hummus fame into a neutral-tasting protein from which to make burgers, nuggets and meatballs.

Animal-free dairy proteins are also being pioneered in Israel. Imagindairy makes animal-free cheese, yogurt and milk from milk proteins it creates with natural precision fermentation. Remilk’s fermentation method is yeast-based; it, too, produces animal-free milk proteins indistinguishable in taste and function from cow-milk proteins. Yofix’s rich and creamy fermented, plant-based, nondairy yogurt is already on sale in Israel at a price lower than that for cow’s milk yogurt.

Investing in FoodTech incubators

The Israel Innovation Authority has been investing in most of these companies and others, some of which through FoodTech incubators. The Kitchen in Ashdod opened in 2015 and bills itself as the world’s first FoodTech hub. It was followed four years later by Fresh Start in Kiryat Shmona. With a motto of “Better Industry. Better Food. Better World,” The Kitchen has received some 350 applications, and is currently working with 22 rigorously selected portfolio companies.

“Our incubator program guides technological and biotech start-ups, providing offices and labs as well as technology, business support and scientific resources, and the business connections to move them from R&D to manufacture – as well as making them visible to Israeli and foreign corporations,” explains Schnarch.

“Promoting technological entrepreneurship and the transfer of disruptive technologies from academia to industry, our incubators have greatly strengthened Israel's FoodTech ecosystem. We further help the industry by forming and funding consortiums – investing a minimum of NIS 20-30 million in each and sometimes much more. Very recently we have approved funding for a cultivated meat consortium, whose members include Tnuva, among others from industry and research entities,” Schnarch elaborates. Another consortium called Food IOT is developing machine learning and artificial intelligence solutions to increase efficiency and productivity of the food chain from farm to fork, ensuring food safety and quality.

The hunt for alternative protein sources is ongoing, with algae, fungi and now fly larvae coming under the microscope. Start-up Flying SpArk, currently at its R&D stage, is turning protein from the fruit fly into a low-fat powder which is 75% protein with no cholesterol – a nutritional value unmatched by any meat or milk product. A second consortium is working on black soldier fly larvae.

While alternative proteins are a strong emphasis for the Israel Innovation Authority, they are one among several. “Our purview is the range of raw materials as sources of human food, and unique ideas and technologies that use value chains in one or more food areas,” says Schnarch.

Bezman details the major areas: “Reducing sugar content and finding sugar alternatives is one. Amai Proteins, which the Authority has invested in from the outset (‘amai ‘means ‘sweet’ in Japanese), has developed a sustainable alternative to sugar from a novel protein. Vanilla Vida is altering the metabolism of vanilla beans to dramatically increase its flavor levels, and Better Juice is using enzymes to reduce the caloric and sugar content in fruit juice.”

Another emphasis is advanced food production technologies and systems, such as that created by Solato. Its gelato, frozen yogurt, sorbet and iced coffee are packaged in capsules which need no refrigeration throughout the entire supply chain. Within 60 seconds of inserting the capsule into the dispenser machine (similar to that of Nespresso), you have the smoothest and freshest ice cream.

Upgrading food quality and safety

In addition to the actual food of the FoodTech revolution, the Authority promotes new ways of safeguarding its production, quality, packaging, purity, transportation and safety. Israel has 26 active start-ups working in food monitoring and safety through the production and supply chain both for raw ingredients and prepared foods. It has 35 smart-packaging technology companies, 31 more working on digitization and connectivity between different parts of the food supply chain, and 22 involved in advanced mechanization of food production.

Bactusense, for example, uses a microchip and optical sensor to detect salmonella, listeria, E. coli and other pathogens in food. Deep Learning Robotics incorporates robots into food manufacturing. Its smart robot will be able to learn a task – say, inserting cookies into a package – by simply observing a production-line worker.

“FoodTech still faces many challenges,” says Schnarch. “There are infrastructure issues to be solved – such as disposal of biologically contaminated waste and supplying the large amounts of water required when working with alternative proteins. Another hurdle is cost-effective scaling up: taking production of cultured meat from a laboratory plate to a tank with a capacity of thousands of liters is far more complex and costly than scaling up the production of microchips.”

“Having said that,” he concludes, “I have no doubt that solutions will be found, and that Israel’s FoodTech industry will continue its amazing advance. It is on track to making a key contribution to helping not only the country but to feeding the world.”

For more information about the Israel Innovation Authority, click here